q6 Dutcher, Protection of Gulls and Tertis. ft"'^ 



July 14, but although it was a very calm day with hardly any sea 

 on, yet it was found impossible to land. The heave of the ocean 

 was so great that oftentimes the spray would dash many feet in the 

 air when a wave broke on the rocks. Capt. Ackley also protected 

 a new colony of about twenty-five pairs of gulls on Shot Island. 

 This is the first year that any have bred there. A colony of about 

 two hundred pairs lived on The Brothers Island. Quite early in 

 the season the Indians succeeded in killing about fifty gulls before 

 the warden heard of their arrival. Fortunately the Indians had 

 camped on Spragues Neck, the owner of which, Mr. Eben Sears, 

 of Boston, Mass., at the request of your Committee, had given a 

 power of attorney to Capt. Ackley. He therefore had no difficulty 

 in driving them from the neighborhood entirely and no further 

 trouble occurred during the season. 



In Mooseabec Reach stands a tall cylindrical rock whose flat 

 apex must contain an area of half an acre. The sides are so 

 precipitous that it is impossible for anything without wings to 

 reach the top. The writer passed close by it on the steamer 

 ' Frank Jones' about 5 a. m. July 16. The whole top of the rock 

 was so white with gulls that it looked as though it were covered 

 with a blanket of snow. The pilot of the steamer told the writer 

 that the gulls were never disturbed there, because no one could 

 get at them, and he added : " I am glad of it, for many and many 

 a time in a dense fog or in the darkness, the gulls have told me 

 that I was on. the true course." Their cries were always vented 

 on the approach of the steamer whether in daylight, darkness, or 

 fog. He thought that the destruction of that colony of gulls 

 would be a distinct menace to navigation. 



A colony of about eighteen hundred pairs of gulls is located 

 at the mouth of Narraguagus Bay, on Egg Rock and Nash 

 Island ; these were cared for by Mr. Charles Huckins, who 

 reports that he had no trouble, and that the protection given 

 them resulted in a very material increase in the colony. 



Great Duck and Little Duck Islands are. located due south 

 from Mount Desert Island and are some six or seven miles out to 

 sea from South West Harbor. Both of these islands contain 

 colonies of gulls, the larger one numbering some two thousand 

 pairs and the smaller about three hundred pairs. Both were 



